HAZWAN AIZAT BIN NOORDIN

MEP14106
Japan rapid growth in development started out during the Meiji Restoration in
1867 period until World War II which emphasizes on infrastructure development,
technological advancement and military power. Post World War II, Japan has
progressively become one of the leading develop nation in the world until lately where
the economy has come to stagnant with lesser technology advancement and
innovation thus creating economic imbalance to the society and social issues in Japan.
In addition to that, as like many other countries in the world, modernization mainly in
urban areas has attracted young ambitious individuals to migrate to the city to seek job
opportunities and vibrant lifestyles compared to the rural areas thus creating social
issues such as depopulation, aging population and hollowing out of industries in the
rural area.
In a glance, this are social problems faced mainly in most develop and
developing nations in the world. Individuals tend to seek opportunities and lifestyles to
get better off with their life. There are some good policies and incentives made by the
Government of Malaysia to attract people to the rural area at one time. This is not new
and was initiated by the second Prime Minister of Malaysia. This initiative was done
mainly at that time to decrease poverty and stabilize the economic growth of the local
citizens which is the Malays and compete economically with the Chinese (who were
brought in by the British as miners and businessman) living in the cities.
In the case of Japan, in the rural areas there is still abundance of undeveloped
land and resources that can be utilize to spur the economic growth and create job
opportunities to attract people to the area. In my point of view, referring to the initiative
above, every rural area has their natural resources and products that can be utilized
and innovated to create more value added to promote. As such, setting up a specific
policy to enhance the resources and products thus creating cluster based economy can
be implemented. In Malaysias case, it started out as production of rubber until the 60s,
then it shifted to exporting crude palm oil and it advances to exporting processed palm
oil and value-added products. As of now, Malaysia is the world leader in exporting palm
oil products. In Japan there are lots of value-added products available, but there can
also be innovation in value added products as well.
Before the initiative was done, an institutional body has to be set up in order to
regulate, incentivize and support new comers to start up their business. This

institutional body is an important body to monitor and make sure those policies by the
Government was well implemented. In order to attract new entrepreneurs, incentives
such as grants, low interest loans and tax exemptions are crucial in order to assist
them in the business. Other than that, the most important thing is assistance in
marketing and promotion to make sure there are markets for them to sell their product
and grow.
In my amateur economic point of view, people will tend to be persuaded if better
incentives and assistance were introduced and they can get better off and progress in
their life. The government can set up a good policy and assistance in order to attract
people to the rural areas and decrease some of the social problems that arises.